Idlewild Flora & Fauna Sparkling Wine, Mendocino 2018 (750 ml)

Is this my favorite dry sparkling white of all time? Ask me again in five years, but the answer is probably. As you glug, you might notice a moment of flowery aromatics that Muscat notoriously loves to show off (diva.) like orange blossom and nutty jasmine iced tea, but it’s balanced scarily well with flavors on the other end of the spectrum, a.k.a. this quenching Cosmic Crisp apple-y apricot lightness with a twinge of sea salt and gingery citrus. Wowza. Fresh from the icebox and used to proverbially fist-bump a cubic foot of cheese and charcuterie, and it’s really, really hard to beat that.

Idlewild has a relatively concise aim within a broad context: to produce wines of exceptional balance and beauty. It is a journey to pursue Italy’s Piedmont in the elevated hills of Mendocino County, and to find the sides of these varieties that are intriguing, delicious, and haunting.

Each wine is unique and treated as such, though the common thread is balancing depth and seriousness with vibrancy and joy. Emphasis is on the vineyard followed by minimalist winemaking techniques. While not dogmatic in practice, an honest and sustainable approach is fundamental in making wines of purity.